Saturday

It's been a good morning. We arrived at the park about 7:30 and took our usual route on the south side of the creek. Saturdays are different in the park as we have found that more people are willing to reply to our 'Good Morning'. We give everyone that simple little greeting; on foot, on bicycle, walking or running, and during the weekdays we have a success rate of 25% to 30%. On Saturdays it may increase to 50%.

Why is that, saying 'Good Morning', so hard to do? We learned to do it when we were children. It was considered to be the simplest of polite gestures. But here in the park, I can be looking right into their eyes and I'm sure that they see my mouth opening. Can't they hear what I'm saying? I'm sure they can, but apparently they aren't interested in communicating. And here is the odd part…my wife and I are hard core introverts. Why do we even bother?

Anyway, back to the walk…we made a 4.1 mile walk out of it and at a 3.3 mph pace. Once we were back near the car, I checked the GPS one more time and then we continued on to the Farmers Market. And what a great morning it was for shopping! We were there at 8:45 and the place was packed. We strolled around the two aisles once just to find out what was looking the best…except for the beautiful tomatoes that we spotted. Those we bagged right away. And I had to have a cup of Columbian Dark roast as we made our final trip around the market. A beautiful white and yellow kernel corn tempted us as well as a deep purple eggplant. How do people resist eggplant? Even if you didn't eat it, you could enjoy the color for at least a week. Finally, we bought a small, ripe right now, cantaloupe to go with our corn, eggplant and tomatoes. Then it was back to the car which gave us 4.5 mile overall for the morning.

The month of August has to be the best month for the Farmers Market and I'm already looking forward to next Saturday. Everything is ripe and the sights and smells in the market are like heaven. Everybody is happy…smiles everywhere. And Chico has three (3) Farmers Markets every week during the summer with one on Wednesday morning at a different location and then the Thursday Night Market when traffic in the heart of Chico is blocked off and vendors fill the street. We avoid this market time as this is the one that allows all sorts of vendors and not just produce. There's also music…lots of music! It's really geared for a younger crowd and that wouldn't be us.

I should mention that we are hoping that today's tomato purchase will be the last one of the summer. Our own tomatoes are soooo close to being ripe. Just another day or two. Or three.